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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

The findings are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will share a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been essential for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

The trio's studies explain a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system protect us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

The immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in countless variations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where white blood cells develop.

This year's award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to disarm other immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "These discoveries have established a new field of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the growth, so research are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.

"This work is a striking example of how fundamental physiological study can have far-reaching implications for public health."